A look ahead at this week's Giants foe

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Every week during the season, we’ll scout out the Giants' next opponent. This week, that opponent is the Washington Redskins.

Over the last few seasons, games between the Giants, Cowboys and Eagles have been staples of the prime time television schedules, thanks to their fights for divisional supremacy and large fan bases.

The NFC East didn't get any bigger, but they're going to all have to start sharing a bit more of that spotlight after this season. With Robert Griffin III heading the Redskins, we will need to get used to seeing them under the lights a lot more often.

Monday night will be Griffin's first prime time game as a pro, although he did get quite a platform to show his stuff on Thanksgiving against the Cowboys. Griffin threw four touchdowns for the second straight week to lead his team to a 38-31 win that kept their flickering playoff hopes alive.

Winning this week would dump kerosene all over them. They'd move a game behind the Giants with four games left to play.

And they'd be playing with the hottest quarterback in all of football. Griffin's last two weeks (just nine incompletions to go with those eight touchdowns) would almost certainly be matched by a third sparkling performance if the Redskins beat the Giants.

Griffin almost led the Redskins back in a game that was part of the Giants' slide toward two losses just before the bye, but was undone by turnovers and an unforgivable defensive breakdown on the game-winning pass to Victor Cruz. He's better than he was last month, which explains why Justin Tuck said he's been having nightmares about this game.

We don't have to tackle him, so we're free to enjoy watching him breathe life back into a franchise and rivalry that really needed it. And if it means a few more late nights in the years to come, so be it.

Some things are worth losing sleep over.

Here's a few other things the Giants coaches will be losing sleep over heading into the game.

Good Draft, Redskins - Mike Shanahan is fickle when it comes to running backs, but we doubt Alfred Morris is going away anytime soon. Morris had 120 yards in the last meeting and will get to 1,000 on the season if he gains 18 this Sunday. You might want to book the over on that.

Bon Jour, Pierre - The Redskins were down a receiver in the first game with Pierre Garçon sidelined and they lost another one when tight end Fred Davis got hurt in the first half of the game. Davis is done for the season, but Garçon is back and he's given Griffin a better option than he had at his disposal at the Meadowlands.

Back Up Off Me, Bro - Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall uttered those words to a reporter asking him about his $30,000 fine for berating an official and he later had a screaming match with a reporter in the locker room after practice. He's a combustible fellow, in other words, and one that the Giants might want to test in hopes of sending him off his game.

London Bridge Never Falling Down - Since linebacker London Fletcher has entered the NFL, his teams have played 235 games. Fletcher has played in every one of them and continues to play well in his 15th season hunting down ball carriers.

Fletcher was undrafted, pretty much the opposite of the first overall pick we led with. Prime time is open to all comers with a good story to tell, though.